In shift toward home care market, Henrico-based Owens & Minor seeks to unload product and healthcare services segment

Officials from Henrico-based healthcare logistics company Owens & Minor on Friday signaled a significant shift in the focus of the business – toward the home-based care market and away from the company’s traditional Products and Healthcare Services division, which it is now actively seeking to sell.

That sale, Owens & Minor President and CEO Edward Pesicka said in a statement, would be the next logical step for the company as it redirects more of its core efforts to its higher-margin Patient Direct home care platform.

The company last summer announced its third major acquisition in the home care space, a $1.36-billion deal for Florida-based Rotech Healthcare, which specializes in respiratory, sleep apnea, diabetes and wound care.

In 2017, Owens & Minor purchased Byram Healthcare, which specializes in medical supplies for patients with diabetes and other chronic diseases. And in 2022, it completed an acquisition of Apria, which provides integrated home healthcare equipment and services for people with sleep apnea and respiratory issues, among others.

Owens & Minor’s ability to repay $647 million in debt during the past two years made its purchase of Rotech possible, Pesicka said.

“Within Patient Direct, we continue to leverage our footprint and broad product offering to support home-based care for millions of patients with chronic conditions,” he said in a statement. “These capabilities, combined with positive demographic trends and expanding home treatment options, leaves us very bullish on the future of this business.”

Friday’s announcement came as the company released its fourth-quarter earnings, which outpaced Wall Street projections in a bit of good news for the company, whose stock price had cratered at $6.07 per share earlier this month after peaking at a 52-week high of $28.35 per share in March 2024.

Owens & Minor’s adjusted earning per share in the fourth quarter of 55 cents beat projections by 3 cents, and its total sales during the quarter ($2.696 billion) also outpaced projections ($2.68 billion).

Company officials are anticipating total sales in 2025 of between $10.85 billion and $11.15 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of between $1.60 and $1.85.

Owens & Minor employs more than 20,000 people worldwide, including about 600 in the Richmond region. It moved its headquarters back to Henrico’s Innsbrook Corporate Center last summer, five month after selling its former headquarters just across the line in Hanover County to the Virginia Department of Transportation for about $34 million.

Prior to moving to Hanover in 2006, Owens & Minor had been based in Innsbrook for a number of years.

The company was founded in 1882 in Richmond.